Chess Squares or Gooey Butter Cake

I saw a recipe for Chess Squares on a blog I follow. I was talking to Denise a day or two later and told her about it. She told me it was a variation of a Paula Deen recipe and that Paula called her recipe Gooey Butter Cake. Denise makes this cake for their coffee shop and it is a big hit.


I decided to make it this past Monday when Candice and Karen came over to work on projects. I used the Chess Squares recipe. The difference between the two recipes is that butter is added to both the cake part and the filling part. This is very good and very rich.

Here is Paula Deen's recipe:

Crust:

1 yellow cake mix

1 egg

8 T butter, melted (1 stick)

Filling:

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

8 T butter, melted (1 stick)

1 16oz box powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:

Combine cake mix, egg, butter; mix well with electric mixer.

Pat mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish

Filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, butter and beat together. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cake batter.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes.

Don't overbake as center should be a little gooey.

Variations:

Chocolate:

Use a chocolate cake mix and add 3 to 4T cocoa powder and 1 cup nuts (optional) to filling.

Toffee:

Use a yellow cake mix

Add 1 cup almond or chocolate toffee bits to filling.

Pumpkin:

Use yellow or spice cake mix for the crust.

Add 15 oz can of pumpkin and 1 tsp cinnamon to filling.